I’ve combined three questions from three different readers, because a response to one overlaps with responses to all. In short, engaging in violence or harm of any sort directly counters the aim of all Buddhist practice: the aspiration to end suffering.
You’ve landed on a central issue for every meditator: what to do with a drifting mind. The question addresses the irony that we have a learning curve to simply be with our experience of being. Meditation is just a circumscribed time of minimal distraction.
Q. Can you help me understand all the different kinds of Buddhism? Like Christianity, it seems there are many branches, i.e., Zen, Tibetan, etc. How many are there and how are they different?
Although I study and write books on many world wisdom traditions, at heart, I am a committed Buddhist practitioner. This turn away from my childhood faith of Presbyterianism occurred on a narrow trail 500 feet above a terrifying and roaring river in the Himalayas.
Spokane Faith & Values is happy to welcome Sarah Conover to its team of writers.
Conover teaches creative writing and meditation and has author several books, including "Muhammad: the Story of a Prophet and Reformer," which will be released later this year.